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Powerful

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Well, Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton are two of my favorite actresses and coincidentally they both play in a lot of movies of more recent days that I like a lot. Byzantium is one of those movies.Byzantium is a vampire movie and on top it got an unique story-line. That's some achievement in a genre that is twilighted and underworlded to an extent that the whole genre is almost more dead as zombie/walkers are: the modern vampire just hunts after romances with mortals, tries too look all cool and impressive and wants trophies of wolves. And even if he or she may be some hundred years old they still attend high-school and act in courting like juveniles or almost more worse, they wear latex and leather stuff all day and stand around and look important and wait all day - for wolves or a sip of blood. If I would be damned to be such kind of a vampire I would impale myself immediately and meet my creator pronto.Luckily, there are some exceptions in modern vampirism - Let Me In (both versions), 30 Days of Night, Stoker's Dracula, Interview with an Vampire, Only Lovers Left Alive and - Byzantium. A very nice change/relief for the lover of sharp tooth.

Worth at least 8! as now 6.5, ridiculous.The cast, story , picture is great.It is a bit slow but that is very appropriate for this movie. When he directed Interview wt a vamp, it was a different story and take of the vampires.This director is amazing.It seem the vast majority of his work is great.

I thought Byzantium would be some kind of period piece set in ancient times, but such was not the case. We follow the "lives" of two female vampires (mother and daughter but passing as sisters) in modern times with some flashbacks to the 18th century explaining their origins. Today, the mother, Claire, (Gemma Arterton) is a stripper/prostitute to make ends meet while her daughter, Eleanor, (Saoirse Ronan) mostly stays at home and writes. An incident happens, the mother gets pursued by a mysterious guy (exciting pursuit), and the duo has to flee town. In a decrepit coastal town, the mother befriends a desolate man whose mother passed away leaving the Byzantium Hotel as heritage. And as far as I know, it's the only reason the film was called that. Clara decides to open a brothel in it while a young man tries to befriend Eleanor.I found it rather unconventional and a throwback at the same time. I found very quickly that it had a kind of moody "Interview with a vampire" vibe. No wonder, because I learnt later it was made by the same director, Neil Jordan. I liked the story, how it progressed and how it ended. Basically, most of the later conflicts hail from Eleanor, who cannot bear to live in secret anymore, trying to change her "life", while her mother is ready to do anything to survive and stay hidden. I liked how the vampires were different by not having fangs and being able to go in the daylight (among other things). I liked how the mother/daughter vampires were characters with diametrically-opposed personalities and sometimes showed kindness and compassion, especially Eleanor who was like a death angel initially only taking people who were ready to die. The performances were very good, but for me, Saoirse Ronan who showed a lot of emotion even when she was not talking, was stronger than her costar, Gemma Arterton. I was also impressed by the young redhead man, Frank, who tried to befriend Eleanor. The relationship between him and Eleanor was somewhat touching and fascinating to me. Directorially, there were interesting choices like, for example, the characters who were sometimes in the same scene as their "doubles" from the past. Take also any scene where blood was present, especially when Frank injured himself and how Eleanor reacted (the cloth! :). The waterfall scenes with the water turning red were also memorable. Byzantium was not a particularly action-packed or gory film (far from it), but it fit well here since the vampires were so "human". A few things bugged me such as a couple of coincidences (how Eleanor ran into Frank the second time) and a few plot points (such as young Clara just going with that military man and just staying a prostitute). I didn't particularly like "Interview with a Vampire" or "Only Lovers Left Alive", but I strangely liked "Byzantium", although they're all in the same vein. It's something to watch on a dark night when you'd like a decent drama with a different flavour of vampire.Rating: 7.5 out of 10 (very good)

An Irish vampire movie, thus back to where the vampires were originated. There are no good vampire movies these days, all those are teen target products which are simply a fantasy flick. In the old days, its horror and terrifying ugly giant beasts, the werewolves were, but in the todays movies they are adorable giant wolves. It's either vampire movie or werewolf, the result is same. 'Twilight' or 'Vampire Academy' and others, just not my type, though watch them for entertainment and to keep up-to-date.The reason I watched it is for Saoirse Ronan, because I like her. But Gemma Arterton has been so good like always. To me this is what called a vampire movie. Of course, themes should vary from a movie to another, that does not mean one can completely abandon the basic theory. Neo-Gothic is one of that, the present filmmakers forgets, because that kind of set-up gives Dracula effect. This film has been just like everything I wanted, so I enjoyed every bit.It is always great to see a movie that portrays the world over the span of 100 or more years. As usual survival and hiding the identity is the main intention for the concept. But from who (other than humans) and why is the suspense that reveals formally at the right time. If you like 'We're the Nights', then this is the right one to pick. But not great as 'Interview with the Vampire' was, in fact, it was directed by the same director.7.5/10